Wednesday, September 29, 2010

For my Midwestern Peeps

I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but sometimes the girls beg us to let them watch cheesy 80s videos before bed in lieu of stories and, this is where it gets embarrassing, sometimes we let them. I mean, they do read a lot of stories at school…

Anyway, enough about our poor parenting skills. The other night Jeremiah was allowing Kate and Sarah to watch Cindy Lauper’s Time After Time. I still love that song; it remains one of my favorite Sing In The Car tunes. In the video our protagonist finds herself opting to leave a familiar life, sadly, but determinately. If you lived with a guy in a mobile home somewhere in the woods this couldn’t possibly be such a depressing decision. The girls always want literary commentary and explanation on the events in videos, which is one of the main reasons I avoid Peter Gabriel’s hits. The deeper meaning of Sledgehammer? Yeah, you try telling them there isn’t any and see if they accept it and move on.

Kate, in particular, wants to know why the singer in Time After Time is so sad. Jeremiah explained, as have I (time after time) that she is moving on but it’s bittersweet. “What’s bittersweet?” Jeremiah, attempting to steer the conversation away from the visual of the video and on to the topic of Kate herself, explained that the singer is “off to see the world! Looking for new adventures in the big city!” then he asked where Kate would go to find new and exciting adventures in her life.

It’s obvious when a thought is yummy to Kate. Her eyes get wide and glaze over slightly while she savors the freedom to choose from seemingly unlimited options. In no time at all, though, she knew where she’d find her adventure. “Nebraska!” she announced.

2 comments:

Aunt So-So said...

This is going to sound crazy, but Chris and I were just talking about the Time after Time video on Tuesday night to our friend Jason. Then we started talking about She Bop. I think that's a good one to show her next.

LMP said...

Oh, they've seen She Bop. They're in the "I doooon't even unnnderstand!" camp for now.